PLANNING EDUCATIONAL CHANGE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA COMPREHENSIVE READING/COMMUNICATION ARTS PLAN IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

It is the purpose of this field study to describe the process of implementing the Pennsylvania Comprehensive Reading/Communication Arts Plan (PCRP) in an urban school. The description will focus on the principal's activities in implementing the plan, obstacles encountered along the way, and measure taken to minimize them. ^ Field study procedures are used in this study in order to provide tangible ways to describe efforts of change. Participant observation, conferences, interviews and journals are the means by which the field study is accomplished. An aim of these procedures is to permit observation of the performance and reactions of the teachers and the students as unobtrusively as possible during the time the innovation was carried out. ^ In this study, the principal functioned as a participant observer who recorded what was happening. Since interviews and conferences do not give a complete picture, journals were kept to record what the principal did as he worked to improve the school's program.^ The techniques used in the data-collection procedures were; formal and informal interviews of the staff and pupils; formal and informal observations of behaviors exhibited by teachers and pupils in the classrooms; self-administered questionnaires for both teachers and pupils and a journal in which the principal recorded observations, interviews and assessments of persons participating in or having an effect on the PCRP.^ It was seen that many emergent problems arise during the implementation efforts. These problems may impede the implementation if they are not met. Another result of this study was the sensitizing of the participants to the importance of reading and writing daily. The adoption of the innovation by the teachers in the school varied with the majority of the participants being rated from moderate to high on their degree of performance. Finally, it was evident that the principal's responsibilities are many faceted and time must be reserved to work closely with the teachers and their students in improving the school's program. ^